Bob's Props

A quick note to say that somehow, the foot fairies gifted me with tougher feet than I thought. Today I barely hobbled a bit! I actually forgot about my feet there for a while!

Onwards!

Since about the 26th of December Bob has been asking me if I have posted the pictures of our basement on my blog. I'm convinced Bob thinks I have tons of readers. He always said I could take the world by storm. Luckily for me, I only need about 5 readers to fill my world but, let's just keep that between you and me. If Bob got wind that only a few people in the world knew of his 'contractoritis' I may never get anything finished around here again!

I should say that Bob still isn't finished but would like some pictures up of his imminent victory over the unruly mess that was our basement. Even though there are things that need to be done, they are minor and I have begun to live in my entire home again! Tonight Bob has to get one more wall plate to cover a hole the dogs would dig at in the wall and the puppies will officially be living large.


Believe it or not, that is an IKEA kitchen and there is finally a countertop that I can keep clean (the old one was a ceramic tile one that Bob did and it was pretty but we never sealed the grout so it was a bitch to keep clean)! The jut out was my idea. We took two upper cabinets with glass doors and Bob built an island out from the wall. The base is not finished as we are still waiting for the kickplates to be shipped. Also, I wanted the front piece to look like a separate piece of furniture so we are waiting so we can top it with granite. (The kitchen tins are Bob's but I think they look nice in the cabinet and now they will no longer be dust magnets!)

I love the lighter colour floors and the white trim on the walls look so much better than the beige on almond look we had. Keep in mind that the puppies come streaking through this room with mud and glory so keeping baseboards white and clean will probably be a full time job but, I love white trim. Also, I paid the contractors extra to scrap the popcorn ceilings down to have plain drywall on the ceilings. I think it was a cheap and fast solution Bob had when he had to finish the place in time for his one time father-in-law to move in. I *hate* popcorn ceilings and in a basement where the ceilings are only 7 1/2' it was horribly noticeable.

Of course, Bob had no taste before he was married to me. None, nada, zip! He was not living to his full potential. He says now, that I am his inspiration - awwww, what a sweetie. I will explain in case you are thinking this is a mean thing to say.

First, he was married to Sue whose choice in paint and wallpaper are suspect already (she now gets me to pick out her paint colours for her home). Add to that Bob is colour blind and he had no idea that the peach trim he had all over his house was the tackiest thing I had ever seen. He said he thought is was a light yellow. Once I painted all that trim 4 coats of white all his friends and ex-in-laws (because you can get rid of a wife but the in-laws are forever - according to those in-laws who love Bob) told him how bad the peach really was. He was stunned. He said to me, they always said how nice our house looked. Of course they would! What else would they say!

Now those friends and family tell us we have a house out of home and garden. I'm not sure I believe these people as they once told Bob peach baseboards were nice. Oh, and the geese wallpaper in the kitchen. Oy vay!! I'll have to see if I can find an old picture of that scary ass mess.

Oh, here is a picture of the baseboard colour. I never painted the inside of the linen closet because I needed a piece of his past to use against him if he ever balked at one of my colour choices.

'Really, you think this green is nasty? Hmmm, let's go look in the linen closet, shall we?'

I win every time.


I also keep him from bringing anything super tacky home - oh wait I've got a picture of something that Bob brought home without consulting me (to your right). I have graciously let him keep it and even though it has been hanging around for about 6 years I haven't the heart to try and sell it on Ebay even though Bob says he is no longer attached. Yeah, right. A Budweiser stool! I remember him being so excited when he got home.

'Cover your eyes! Wait till you see this!'

I was stunned he would pay money for such a thing and he was stunned that I didn't see the wonder of his purchase.

Still can't see it.

Last month after all the contractors had left I looked at Bob in awe and said 'I can't believe they made offers for the fridge and the fireplace but not one of them offered to buy that Budweiser stool!'

Poor Bob. Nobody gets his genius.

Boo-ya!!!

Okay, we'll get to the sweet stuff in a minute, just thought I would share the mental break through I finally had just before Kristie showed up.

Whenever I go through a big life change I go into some sort of emotional shock. My family moved in November of my 9th grade year (or my first year of high school). My father would have to drive me an hour from where we lived at the time to go to a school with a bunch of people I didn't know, 2 years behind in French and staying in the school until 6pm well after all the other kids had left. We did this until we finally moved in November - the high school I would have started was not on semesters and the one I was going to was so they were worried I would get too far behind. Trust me, they would have been right!

I guess at the time there were too many changes at once. I didn't know that I was going through anything until 9 months later when I was watching TV with my father and saw three shows back to back that were horribly sad. I had never cried like that in my life before! I rarely if ever sob so I knew something was definitely up. I finally figured out that for the past nine months I had been on auto-pilot until something in me snapped and allowed me to feel.

It happened again when I got married. I didn't live with Bob before we got married so it was quite a change from sleeping in my own bed at night to having someone stealing all the covers! I broke at the three month mark when Bob came home and found me sobbing on the porch about how the house was a disaster and I didn't know where to start and I was an obvious failure at being a wife. Bob cleaned that house lickety split and said it was nothing to worry about. I settled in after that - I still have the 'I'm an awful wife' moments but they are only about once a year now. *snort*

Sooo, moving to this house I remember thinking that I had to be prepared to go into a shock. Thing is, when you are in the shock you don't *think* you are in the shock.

I was in the shock.

Suddenly I'm looking around me and thinking 'I don't want that toaster there!'. See, Bob unpacked and put everything where he wanted and I was fine with it.

Shock.

Now, I'm realizing that things aren't done for efficiency (Bob forgets that sometimes) so I'm starting to assert my way.

Poor Bob. He must have thought he had died and gone to Heaven with the way I was acting.

'What? You want to put your Budweiser bar stool on a glass shelf with spotlights? Sure.'

Shock.

Looks like I'm finally coming out of it and taking the reigns back. Bob and I will rib each other about our projects and tonight I made a crack about whether a toilet would be in our downstairs bathroom by Christmas. Bob said 'Of course!'. I said, 'You realize it's November.' To which the smart ass said 'It's November!! OMG!!!'

Comedian, no?

So yeah, the whip is about to get cracked!

Onwards!

Kristie came for a visit and I talked her poor ear off. I swear I see people all the time but like Kristie says we have so much in common that I barely take a breath when we are together!

All the same, we managed to get to the bookstore finally!

Here's the loot:

Okay, I have read Julia London once before but it was a contemporary. I liked her writing but I felt like the book leaned more into the chick-lit genre. (Dang, Bob was cleaning the desk and my book reading journal is missing so I can't check which title it was)

Anyways, I saw the word Highlander and then the 'At a special price!' logo and I was sold.

Yep, I'm easy.

I can hope these will have a little more steam, right?

My Forever Love was one Kristie helped me pick. I know I have Marsha Canham in my TBR pile but I'm pretty sure I don't have this one. Kristie practically melted when I asked if she had read Canham. I figure that's a good recommendation ;)

I picked up The Lady Killer by Samantha Saxon in my quest to find new Auto-buy authors. The heroine is an assassin.

Cool.

Other than that, I know nothing.

Like usual.

And then, TADA!! I found this on the shelf after asking the sales associate for help.

Duh.

I forgot my alphabet and someone had put her first book on the shelf in the wrong place so I was looking an entire 4' section out of the way.

Not bright but whatever.

So that's it from my stash! I seem to like to buy my books in odd numbers. Weird.

I also realized that I have to start reading more. Immediately! Kristie knew or had read almost every author I had asked 'have you read so and so?'

Me? Not so much.

And I call myself a reader!

Bad Cindy.